This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English EducationReport.

For most American children, summer is a time away fromschoolbooks. But it is not supposed to be a time away from reading.One of the most important issues in American education is how toteach children to read. The most common methods depend on phonics.This system teaches children to connect words with the sounds of theletters that form those words.

Children often learn the sounds of letters before they learn toread. With phonics, children are taught to "sound out" words they donot know. For example, to learn the word "cat," children first learnto recognize the sound of the letter C. Then they learn the soundsof the letters A and T used together. Finally, they join thesesounds to form the word.

In another method of teaching phonics, children learn torecognize the whole word first. They write the word enough timesuntil they remember it. Schools often present this method during theteaching of reading, not before. Then the children learn to studywords for their sounds. This helps them understand why some lettersare used in a word instead of others.

Experts say phonics makes it possible for children to sound outmany words that they do not recognize by sight. However, the soundof a letter is not always the same in every word. For this reason,many teachers add other methods to teach reading.

A few years ago, a committee studied many reading methods. TheNational Reading Panel urged teachers to use phonics in theirprograms. And in two-thousand-two President Bush signed an educationlaw called No Child Left Behind. It includes a program called"Reading First." The goal is to increase the reading skills ofAmerican children. The program is based on the suggestions of theNational Reading Panel.

Over the years, there has been a lot of debate among teachers,parents and politicians over ways to teach reading. Another methodis called whole language. Children are taught ways to learn newwords not so much by how they sound as by how they are used.Supporters of phonics say this requires too much guessing. But a lotof experts say the best way to teach reading is to combine phonicsand whole language methods.

This VOA Special Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson.This is Steve Ember.